Multinational Corporations Must Provide a Living Wage

Multinational Corporations Providing a Living Wage

There has been major controversy with multinational corporations employing foreign workers at very low wages for punishing hours. Working in excruciating conditions in underdeveloped countries only to manufacture export goods for Western consumers is usually the only option for foreign workers attempting to support themselves and or their family. In this essay, I will argue that any multinational corporation that is operating in a developing country must pay their employee’s not only a living wage but also provide them with safe working conditions. Exploiting foreign workers wages and having them operate in poor conditions will shine a negative light on these multinational corporations, which will damage their reputation. Multinational corporations can be viewed as ethically and morally just in some instances by adding a few more cents to the employee’s wage to obtain a living wage and further, providing the workers with a safe and healthy work environment.

There has always been negative attributions attached to the term “sweatshops” or “sweat factories” and there are many legitimate reasons for this. Sweatshops are considered to be any work environment that involves intensive labour and sometimes child labour receiving compensation that is unfair in which the employee’s can hardly survive on. These labourers work for exceedingly long hours in hazardous conditions that

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could result in serious injury or death. On top of all these unreasonable conditions employees may be subject to mental or even physical abuse brought on to them by their employer.

One of the most central attributes to sweatshops is the employee’s low wage. The main reaso...

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...n order to try and provide for themselves and their family. Once employed these foreign workers understand they cannot sufficiently provide for their family but are trapped in these inadequate conditions due to lack of opportunity elsewhere. These background conditions is what attracts the egoist shareholder who is involved in the “race to the bottom” to increase profit margins. Providing a living wage and ensuring health and

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safety is maintained in the workplace will not jeopardize the company’s bottom line because of how large their profit margins are. As a multinational corporation, fulfilling these duties will shine a positive light on their company’s reputation for reducing the amount of workplace injuries and deaths that occur and also delivering a wage that demonstrates human dignity to abolish exploitation.